Special hotel rate ends Aug 11th. Jason Fried shows how he runs Basecamp. Some of the problems we want to help you solve at BoS.

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We're just over a month out from BoS US - and the schedule is packing in a lot of bang for the buck even if we say so ourselves...

If you've not already done it, have a quick look at the schedule - we curate talks carefully to help attendees address the challenges in their businesses. This year, the jobs we want BoS to do for you include:

Hiring good people is a problem that most businesses face, and Bridget Harris is giving a talk at BoS which seems especially pertinent at the moment. You'll have had to have been living under a rock to have missed out on all the Google Memo commentary and discussion lately. I blogged last month about how social media is great for shouting but rarely changes views. Reading comments on news coverage of The Google Memo (I know, no-one should read the comments) and seeing it play out on Twitter confirms that opinion. Whether you believe Google was right or wrong to sack the author of the memo, Google is a large company with clear procedures and policies that have been developed to, let's face it, protect the company from lawsuits. That evolved as the company scaled, along with a large legal team. In contrast, culture is sometimes seen as a by-product, which evolves by accident rather than design. To hire the best people, one of the things you need to do is create a culture in which the best people want to work - and the elements which create that culture are complex and often subconscious. Bridget's talk will cover how it's not just about trying to find the so called "rock star developers", but about building up a company culture that will form the basis of attracting the most talented people who will want to work for you.

Other news: Peldi from Balsamiq has kindly donated some advertising space in our BoS USA programme for any smaller companies attending who wish to promote themselves: if you're coming and want to be included, send a logo, your URL and 1 sentence about your business to amy.firth@businessofsoftware.org - only for companies registered to attend though, sorry.

New video:Your Company Should be Your Best Product. Jason Fried of Basecamp gave a great talk in 2016 where he demonstrated how Basecamp was run using their own software. A rare chance to see the inner workings of a successful company.